Gee receives national mentoring award

A national higher-education group honored Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee last night for his
work mentoring other school leaders, many of whom later became university presidents
themselves.

The American Council on Education presented Gee with the award during the opening plenary of the
group's annual meeting in Washington.

Created in 1965, the Council of Fellows program is designed to make colleges stronger by
identifying and preparing faculty and staff members for senior leadership positions. Nearly 2,000
college and university leaders have participated, including 300 who went on to become chief
executive officers and more than 1,300 who have become provosts, vice presidents and deans.

"Dr. Gee’s commitment to the fellows program stretches back to 1983, and he has spent many hours
mentoring a total
of a dozen Fellows, including a member of the 2012-13 class," Andrea Warren Hamos, interim
director of the council's fellow and emerging leaders group programs, said in a written
release.

Gee’s first mentee, Jon S. Whitmore of the 1983-84 Fellows class, went on to the presidencies at
San Jose State University in California and Texas Tech University and is the current CEO of ACT,
Inc. Three of Gee’s other mentees also became presidents, including Mark A. Emmert, the embattled
NCAA president and former president of the University of Washington and chancellor of Louisiana
State University. The NCAA, and Emmert, have been criticized and ridiculed over the past month over
the NCAA's botched investigation of Miami.